نشریه اقتصاد دفاع و توسعه پایدار
پیاپی 7 (بهار 1397)

The main objective of this study is to evaluate Islamic Republic of Iran’s military Pension Fund financial equilibrium and to present solutions for improving its financial sustainability. In this regard, financial expenditure of this fund is defined as Pensioners’ salaries while its financial resource includes retirement deduction (22.5 percent of the salary of employees) and investment income. At the first step, financial deficit of the fund (the difference between expenditures and resources of this fund) is estimated, using descriptive and statistical methods. The results show that in the current situation, the existing resources of the military Pension Fund will only be able to cover 25% of its expenditures without government assistance. In other words, 75% of retirement benefits are provided from the state budget. Also it is estimated that in the next 10 years (at the end of the year 1406 Hijri Shamsi), the resources of the fund will be able to provide 20 Percent of retirement benefits. One of the ways to improve the financial sustainability of this fund is to grow assets of this pension fund so that investment income provides all or a greaeter share of retirement benefits. The resources needed to finance one-third, two-thirds or all of the fund's expenditures is estimated using scenario method. For example, if the fund's purpose is to finance one third of its expenditures at the end of 1406, assuming that the return rate is equivalent to the average long-term economic growth rate (5.7%), 172.5 trillion Tomans of asset is required. While, to finance two-thirds or all of the fund's expenditures, 351.4 and 524 trillion Tomans of asset are required respectively.

Military expenditures is an important part of any country's national budget. From an economic point of view, government spending on national defense is determined by national fiscal policies. The increasing trend of military and defense expenditures in recent years in the world and in Iran shows an increasing importance of examining the economic impact of defense spending. Defense spending can influence important macroeconomic variables, according to existing theoretical literature. These include social welfare and its evaluating indices. In this paper, the effect of military spending on welfare Index and welfare expenditures (health and education expenditures) has been investigated by panel data approach using a sample of 47 countries divided in two groups of developing and developed ones. Results show that education expenditures are not affected by military spending in both developed and developing countries and the sample of all countries. But health expenditures has a significant negative relationship with military spending in both developing and developed countries. Although there is no significant relationship between social welfare and military spending in developing countries, the relation is negative and significant in developed countries (and in the sample of all countries). This suggests that governments should be more cautious in planning expansions in their military spending.

Security is one of the most basic needs of any country and progress and prosperity are achieved by security. On the other hand, power and defense of the country against violation and malice is necessary for the security. This power and defense is achieved through the development of defense and security researches. Without defense research, security is dependent on foreign equipment, which itself challenges security. On the other hand, defense and security research and its development requires financial resources while government budgets are limited. So, identifying new sources of funding for defense and security research is essential. One of these options is the capacity of the charitable society. Accordingly, the present study seeks to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the attitudes and incentives of the benefactors to finance defense and security research. For this purpose, after reviewing the literature, for identifying the indicators that affect the supportive behavior of the benefactors, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the benefactors, Organization of Endowment and Charity experts and researchers. Then the factors were prioritized using the Hierarchical Analysis Process based on the opinion of 30 experts (consisting of the charitable foundations of the country and charity institutes). The results of the research showed that among the 25 main indicators affecting the behavior of the benevolent, the indices of one’s history, patriotism and durability of one’s name are the most important indicators and excitement of feelings, lack of concern about confiscation of property and tax incentives are the low priority.

The US has one of the most complex national systems of sanctions enforcement in the world. This system derives from the number of agencies that each have their own duties and authorities in US sanction program. One of these agencies is the Justice Department, which can criminally prosecute willful violations of certain export controls and sanctions laws, along with other related criminal laws. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has the power to investigate and prosecute violations of federal criminal laws, which includes willful violations of sanctions and export controls laws. The DOJ typically prosecutes violations of sanctions programs through its Offices and agencies. The DOJ often works together with these and other law enforcement entities, at both the state and federal level. Administrative and civil enforcement agencies that frequently collaborate with the DOJ include the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), as well as the Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC). On the other hand, since Iran has always been sanctioned by US, understanding the role of the DOJ and analyzing the policies of the Department is necessary for it. Therefore, in the forthcoming article using the library method and the study of Persian and English resources and websites, we will examine the role of the DOJ in the US sanctions program.

Today, the dominance of currencies such as the Dollar and the Euro over the global trading system and the dependence of bank transfers on the SWIFT network have become the power measure to impose sanctions. International organizations, their facilities and regulations were used mostly as tools for global management in the past, but today the sorts of governance and relations between countries have changed with modern tools and organizations emerging alongside traditional tools and the possibility of intelligent data management. Therefore, in many countries both centralized governments and decentralized public institutions want to restructure the relationships and use of new tools such as "cryptocurrencies" for exchanges, financing and transferring assets in order to maintain their independence and economic status. The desire to decrease the monopoly power of dominating currencies throughout the global economy and its exchange platform, has expanded countries' incentives to conduct bilateral and multilateral exchanges with local currencies in the context of the new blockchain technology. One way of facilitating the exchanges and aversion of exchange rate volatilities is the creation of a “digital currency” backed by a portfolio of national and international currencies, gold, oil and other assets operating similar to SDR (Special Drawing Right), provides secure, fast and cheap clearing of payments among traders without the need for SWIFT. In this paper, we have examined the possibility of establishing a digital currency named “Ecomoney” between Iran and ECO member countries and major trading parties of Iran such as China, India and Russia.

After Kahneman and Tversky expanded the Prospect theory in the context of behavioral economics in year 1992, academic and policy making communities wondered as if the theory of expected valuation could solely explain the economic behavior of individuals and governments in different decision-making situations. This was further reinforced by the facts of the wars between Iraq and the United States (1990) or England and Argentina (1982) asking why is it that one country still decides to enter a direct war, despite finding itself economically and militarily weaker than the adversary. Behavioral economists have attempted to use the Prospect theory to explain these countries’ responds by providing a more accurate prediction of the behavior of many governments in opposition to powerful countries. In the meantime, the use of game theory due to its high modeling power regarding intelligent actors and their dynamic behavior has gained widespread use in combination with landscape theory. In this paper, we try to present the Prospect theory and the way it is combined with game theory in order to provide a model for the optimal explanation of Iran’s socio-economic behavior under sanctions.